Are these guns going to the US military to replace/supliment the current lot, or are (some of) these the guns I've heard that the US military is giving to the Afghan Army? Or... two entirely separate orders?

I've never been a fan of the M9. The horrible trigger, terrible mil-spec mags, and the FMJ round never made me confident in the thing. If there was a round in the chamber it would go bang, but sometimes getting it there was the problem. Even with rotating our mags out and carrying 10-12 rounds in them the springs would still stick after a couple months. When you'd drop the mag a few rounds would fall out because there wouldn't be any tension from the spring.
I'm disappointed in the Colt I had high hopes for them.
When I was in Iraq the more capable units had Glocks not M9's, but we did give them all of our crappy HMMWV's.

On the damage to the frame of the 1911s, there doesn't seem to be any details about number of rounds per gun or other "abuse" the test guns received so it's hard to know if there is really a problem or not. I would think not since the Marines bought them anyway.

If you carry 9mm for duty carry it loaded with a very good duty round and not 115 grain fmj military hard ball. It will work.

The m9 or model 92 will fire if you point it at the target and operate the trigger. If you keep a good spring in your magazine it will feed and retain ammo just fine. The pistol is very good design. There are better designs and worse designs out there.

I carried one in military with no difficulty with either the pistol or magazines i was issued. I was aware of some problems with the first batch of m9 pistols the military received but those were quickly replaced by beretta and things were ok after that.

I own and do use and carry a 92fs today and it is ok. I have no complaints. I hit with it. It holds a very tight group at 25 yards.

I have several other pistols including a glock in 357 sig. Glock shoots good and is durable and reliable.

Most of the duty grade pistols will be reliable if you maintain them and use good ammo. You have to find one that works for you. They are many. The variety is certainly there. All of them are guaranteed to make you hurt like hell if you get shot with one.

In response to the question about what they will do with them - we usually give the old stuff to other nations and keep the new stuff.

My personal observations on the M9.

1. I never shot anyone with one. I never even shot at anyone with one. So I have no opinion on the great stopping power debate.

2. Like most military equipment, they are abused. I swear that the last one I qualified with had been dragged behind a truck. Or maybe someone used the sights as a hammer. Neither would surprise me.

3. They are not well maintained. No commander in his right mind is going to use his maintenance budget on pistols when there are other things that need to be maintained. They just aren't that important.

4. As pointed out above, the magazine springs loose their spring if you leave them loaded too long (I'd say months). Then they don't feed right. The solution is to get an extra magazine and always have one disassembled with the spring resting. Once a week works fine.

5. The new magazines we were given did not work. You had to take them apart and scrub out something that may have been (at one time) a preservative. Then they worked ok.

6. Compared to the M1911's I had used, the first M9 I was given was wonderful. The former was a jalopy and the latter was a luxury car. Of course, now that they've been around, not maintained and been abused (like the .45's were) there are plenty of M9 jalopies out there.

Bottom line is the M9's I used always worked fine though towards the end the maintenance could have been better.

I own the civilian version of the m9, It actually stamped m9 on frame. Im really impressed with it. I used it in my weekly shooting league because it is the 9mm that I am most accurate with. Super easy take down and clean. It ate every thing I fed it but it seemed to like 124 jhp best. Less than 2000 rounds so its still tight. I have no opinion about "stopping power" because I have never shot anything but paper, lucky me. There has been a recent thread about how the m9 was destined to fail. I guess not , if the army still likes it at almost 30 years. Its got some of its bad press because it replaced the beloved 1911.

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